a geranium dress for my girl

I'm not a serious garment sewist by any means, but I like to dabble in that arena from time to time. I made this geranium dress for my girl on Saturday evening and she wore it to church on Sunday. (Pattern is available here.) I sewed the size 12 and added 2" to the length, which turned out to be the perfect fit. Hurray for the ability to customize your project! I love how it fits her slender frame. Someday her and I can wear our matching dresses if we care to. (You can see my gingham washi dress here.) I'd better jump at that chance before she gets much older, right?!? :)

I also wanted to take a moment today to say thank you to those of you who left kind comments about my finish it up Friday break. Thanks for understanding and for making it such a fun event for so long. I sure appreciate it!

Happy Monday to you!

washi dresses 4 & 5

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

I recently did some garment sewing and I'm happy to report that I finished two more dresses! These are becoming a staple in my wardrobe and I'm very happy about that! (You can see version 1 here, version 2 here and version 3 is at the end of this post.)

The pattern is called the Washi Dress and it's by Made by Rae. I can't recommend it enough! I'm very lucky to be able to sew up a size medium with no adjustments whatsoever, and it fits me perfectly. I realize that's rare...thus multiple dresses with the same pattern!

The dresses are versatile. I wear them to church, out shopping and when I teach and speak. They are comfortable and can be dressed up or down. I love that!

The fabric for dress #4 is Chambray Union Indigo by Robert Kaufman, which I purchased here. It's really lovely for a garment!

The orangey red fabric for dress #5 was picked out by my friend Brianne. (It's pretty great to have a personal shopper! Haha!) The print is called petal from the line Vignette, designed by Aneela Hoey for Cloud 9 Fabrics. It was purchased at SR Harris.

The fabric is double gauze, which means that this dress is dreamy!!! I was worried about it getting super wrinkly after wearing it, but I had no problem. Yay! It's a fun dress for warmer fall days.

I think my favorite part of constructing the dress is sewing the shirring on the back, which is made by sewing with elastic thread. I was so afraid of doing that part the first time, but it's like magic, I tell you. It's so satisfying.

I purchased the geranium dress (similar pattern, but for girls) for my daughter last spring, but I haven't made her one yet. I think that's next on the garment sewing list! She's excited about it and I am, too.

Do you sew garments at all? If so, what are some of your go-to patterns? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

Now it's your turn! Please link up your finishes for the week. Thanks for joining me for finish it up Friday!

a quilter's palette complete

Welcome to finish it up Friday! Did you know that I started this link up party exactly 5 years ago today?!?!?! That's. so. crazy!!!! I'm so thankful for it, or who knows how many WIPs I'd have today. Accountability is a great thing! Thank you for sticking with me for that long!

I have another quilt finish today! This pattern is A Quilter's Palette, by the lovely Rita of Red Pepper Quilts. This was a fun quilt to make! I loved digging in the scrap bins and building the blocks one at a time. My friend Brianne and I swapped scraps for some of the blocks, which was very helpful!

I don't often use blue or purple in my quilts, but somehow I still have scraps of those colors. I like what they add to this quilt! It feels good to branch out once in awhile.

I did a simple stipple all over in Auriful 2600, which has to be the most perfect thread color ever. I love it because it blends in with everything and it works so well in my Juki.

These blocks are great for fussy cuts. The butterfly block is one of my favorite parts of the whole quilt.

For the backing I used a fabric I had set aside for making a washi dress. I couldn't see myself wearing this color, and I had JUST enough (within inches) to back the quilt. I figured it was meant to be! The binding is the same fabric that I used on my last quilt finish. (The print is Citrus by Another Point of View for Windham fabrics.)

The quilt measures about 48" x 62". This is scrap project #184! This finish brings my WIP list down to 9! I'm quite excited about that!

Speaking of washi dresses....I spent last Saturday sewing up my third dress using that pattern. The fabric is chambray dots in indigo by Robert Kaufman. It makes a lovely garment! I'm fairly certain that this one will get a lot of wear.

 

How about a giveaway today? If you leave a comment in this post or if you link up today (or both!), your name will be thrown into a virtual hat. I will pick 5 winners that will receive 5 of my PDF patterns of your choice. I'll pick winners on Monday! I know I say it all the time, but I really mean it. Thank you for joining me for finish it up Friday!

gingham washi dress

My boys and I went to visit my sister for a few days this week. I wanted to pack up ALL my scraps and take them with, but I'm not sure I would have had enough room in my van. (ha!) I decided to pack a few smaller projects instead. I'm surprised (and delighted) that I was able to complete another washi dress.

I bought this fabric for $2.99/yard at SR Harris about a year ago or more. (I believe that it's 54" wide, so it was a screamin' deal.) I thought it would make a good quilt back. Turns out, it makes a great dress! I have enough leftover to make my daughter a garment (of some kind), too. It has a beautiful drape and it's nice and soft. I LOVE gingham.

 

This is the washi dress in size medium, with no alternations. I LOVE the fit. It's quite comfortable, and cute, too. I have my next two planned out already. One may be red and white polka dot. I'm sure that comes as no surprise! :)